Will Chiefs find their next Tyreek Hill in new deep-ball duo?

Henry McKenna

AFC East Reporter

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs aren’t like last year’s team.

Patrick Mahomes is intent upon finding that third level: the deep ball that made him famous. At training camp this year, the Chiefs have been airing out the ball so aggressively, it’s like they’ve found a fourth level — almost Hail Mary territory.

With Hollywood Brown and Xavier Worthy on the receiving end of the passes, Mahomes has turned that far-off, low-percentage spot on the field into his playground.

“You know Coach Reid,” offensive coordinator Matt Nagy told reporters during camp. “Coach Reid likes to go deep. We’re going to try to go deep as much as we can and try to play off what we have or what they give us.”

That much has been clear even into these dog days of camp. Even in the Missouri heat, Worthy and Brown were streaking downfield all practice long.

It’s enough to remind you of Tyreek Hill.

And maybe — just maybe — the Chiefs have finally found a guy who’s comparable. Or, in this case, maybe they’ve found two guys who are comparable.

Now, let’s be clear: Mahomes has been beating the second-team defense. It’s not always competitive. But Mahomes is uncorking half-court passes. There can’t be another training camp around the NFL with this level of emphasis on the deep ball. This Chiefs offense is vertical, vertical, vertical. There’s no doubt that Travis Kelce and Rashee Rice will attack the intermediate areas.

There’s also no doubt that Andy Reid and Mahomes are done only attacking those areas.

“The room is just different types of players now,” receiver Skyy Moore said Sunday after practice. “We’re stacked. We’ve got everything you want in a receiver room. I feel like we’ve got one of the best receiver rooms in the league.”

Last season, Mahomes completed his fewest deep passes of his career with 18, which paled in comparison to the career-best 44 he posted in 2018. Mahomes also tossed 210 passes to his running backs and tight ends in 2023, the most in the NFL. Mahomes was a check-down king.

And it was a damn shame.

Mahomes’ arm talent has the potential to provide Endgame-level drama. Instead, the Chiefs offense was a snoozer, with the defense leading the way.

Those days appear to be over.

It might not be time to call off the search for The Next Tyreek. Let’s wait for the regular season to declare the acclimation of Brown and/or Worthy a success. But clearly, Brown and Worthy are clicking in this offense in a way that Moore and Kadarius Toney have not previously.

“I knew that coming in that he was going to be able to run everything,” Moore said of Brown. “You get a feel: That type of player would fit right into this offense, for sure.”

Xavier Worthy, Marquise Brown among those with a lot to prove this year

Brown and Worthy are now the guys catching the deep passes from Mahomes. Moore has had issues with drops in camp. Toney has been nursing an ankle injury. When healthy, he’s actually taking some handoffs. Toney has spent some time at running back this year, with the Chiefs getting creative to see if the former first-round pick can get involved in the offense in a different way.

Brown, Worthy, Rice and Mecole Hardman are locks to make the team. Justin Watson is right there, too. But Moore, Toney and Justyn Ross are all in danger of losing the last spot to Nikko Remigio, a second-year receiver who has had a special camp and got early reps with the first-team offense on Sunday.

It’s just notable that Moore and Toney were once “The Next Tyreek Hill.” And now they are on the bubble in Kansas City. General manager Brett Veach brought in a new group of pass-catchers to give Reid and Mahomes what they wanted: more deep passes.

“What impressed me so much about Hollywood is, everyone told me he was a fast guy. Not everyone told me how much he can actually do on the football field,” Mahomes told reporters early in camp. “[He] can run those over-the-middle routes, he can run really good [shorter] routes and he can run deep. It’s not like fast is the only thing that he can do. … You just see the speed that we have and how it’s opening up everybody.”

Brown is on a one-year deal worth up to $7 million. He’s following the pattern set by JuJu Smith-Schuster in 2022 — taking a season at a discounted salary in Kansas City to rebuild his stock. It worked for Smith-Schuster, who banked a big deal with the New England Patriots after playing for the Chiefs.

Brown should benefit from having Mahomes at quarterback.

“Pat puts it on the money every time, so we’ve been lighting it up,” Brown said. “It has been fun.”

Whether this season leads to a lucrative long-term deal in Kansas City remains to be seen.

And that’s, in part, because of Worthy. The Chiefs traded up in the first-round to snag the Texas speedster, the fastest player in NFL Combine history in the 40-yard dash. Worthy had a very productive college career, including a final season with the Longhorns when he had 75 receptions, 1,014 yards and five touchdowns.

“With Xavier, as the season goes on, he’s just going to get better and better. You can already see the talent,” Mahomes said. “Just running routes and doing a lot of stuff — [he’s] another guy that’s not just a speed guy. He plays tough and runs great routes.”

[McKenna: Chiefs rookie WR Xavier Worthy is exactly where he was meant to be]

The downfield production has already made life easier for Mahomes in practice. Once the Chiefs receivers started lengthening the team’s range, that opened things up for Rice and Kelce in the middle. A lighting-and-thunder dynamic has evolved with Rice, a possession receiver, and Brown.

“[Rice] and Hollywood — they’re just together all the time,” Mahomes said. “They’re always working on routes together. They’re always working to be great. It’s been cool to see [Rice’s] game evolve being around another vet receiver like that.”

It’s clear the Chiefs feel they need to stretch the field this season. They need an electric pass-catcher right now. And they need one for the future, too. There’s really only one Tyreek Hill, who just finished at No. 1 in the NFL’s 100 (somehow above Mahomes).

The Chiefs now know they can’t replace Hill. But they’re making every effort to get someone like him into place. And that place has been deep down the field, catching bomb after bomb throughout camp.

Prior to joining FOX Sports as the AFC East reporter, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.

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